The Exposure Uganda (TEU) Preamble – A Teacher’s Reflection At 64: Why We Must Work, Trade, Marry & Heal Together
At 64, a human being does not want noise. He wants peace for self, for family, and for his grandchildren – or bazukulu as President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni fondly calls the young generation. At 64, he wants peace with all neighbours.
That is where Uganda stands. A mature elder who can no longer blame its parents. It must feed its own children, guard its own house, and secure its own future.
As we count down to October 9th, Senior Presidential Advisor on Poverty Alleviation in Busoga, Hon. Florence Tibafana Mutyabule – herself a teacher by profession – returns to her philosophy of education classroom to examine Uganda. Socrates taught her lecturers to ask: Where have we come from? Where are we? Where are we going?
From that examination she raises two urgent national threads that bind us: our health, especially cancer that knows no tribe, and our unity forged daily through work, trade and intermarriage.
We invite you to read verbatim her enriched 64th Independence message.
Verbatim Message: By SPA Hon. Florence Tibafana Mutyabule.
At sixty-four, a nation can no longer blame its parents. It must feed its own children, guard its own house, and secure its own future.
On behalf of the people of Busoga and on my own behalf, I congratulate our Fountain of Honour, H.E President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, upon restoring the dignity of our flag and steering Uganda from collapse to a secure and respected nation.
We celebrate under the theme: 64 Years of Independence, A Reason to Double Our Efforts in Sustaining a United, Secure and Progressive Nation.
My Philosophy Of Education Class And Socrates.
As a veteran teacher, I cannot forget my philosophy of education lessons during my teaching formation. Our lecturers told us you cannot teach a child you do not understand, and you cannot understand education without philosophy.
The first philosopher they introduced was Socrates (c.470 – 399 BC), the father of Western philosophy. They taught us his method – the Socratic method – teaching by asking, not telling. A teacher asks questions until the learner discovers truth by himself. They taught us his defense in Plato’s Apology: The unexamined life is not worth living.
As teachers we were trained to make learners examine their work and environment. That is what I ask of Uganda at 64. Like a teacher asking Socratic questions: Where have we come from since 1962? Where are we today? Where are we going? Real learning begins with honest self-examination.
And this is where I want to challenge us, especially those of us entrusted with leadership positions, both civil and political, from LC1 to Parliament, from parish chief to Permanent Secretary, from headteacher to RDC.
Like Socrates, we must examine our lives and refuse to yield.
Socrates was lured by friends. They told him, “Just denounce what you stand for, just keep quiet about truth, just compromise a little, and you will save your life. You will keep your job, you will keep your property.” He refused. He chose poison over betrayal of principle.
Today, we are also lured. Lured by bribes, lured by kickbacks, lured by abuse of office, lured by corruption, nepotism, absenteeism, theft of PDM and Emyooga money, theft of drugs from health centers, theft of UPE capitation grants.
In Uganda today, there is a strange new pressure. If you don’t steal and build bungalows and apartments, they say you are foolish. If you don’t steal and drive posh cars, they laugh at you. If you don’t steal and establish estates in Jinja and Kampala, if you don’t steal to pay huge bride price and throw extravagant kwandhula (kwanjula) or introductions, weddings and burials, they say you have failed as a leader. My Basoga will call an honest leader “omunafu, omunaku” while our friends the Lango and Acholi will say “igoro,ibedo agwadagwada, konyi pe ibedo acan” – a weak and poor chap.
I want to tell you, that pressure is the same pressure Socrates faced in Athens. Friends telling him to compromise truth to save face.
I urge you, as a teacher who taught ethics, choose the Socratic path. Let them laugh at you for walking on foot while your juniors drive Harriers from bribes. Let them call you stupid because your children are in a UPE school while you are a boss. History will vindicate you. Socrates died poor. But 2,400 years later, we still name our schools after him. The corrupt jurors who condemned him – who remembers their names? Who remembers their bungalows?
At 64, Uganda does not need leaders who build mansions from stolen PDM money while their people drink dirty water. Uganda does not need civil servants who are absent from duty on Monday but present on Saturday for introductions. Uganda does not need politicians who practice nepotism, giving jobs only to clan mates, while brilliant Busoga girls drop out of school.
An unexamined leadership is not worth following. If your life is bribery, abuse of office, stealing government fuel, forging accountability – then, as Socrates said, your leadership is not worth having.
Examine yourself today: What will your children say of your wealth? Will they say “my father built this from hard work” or will they whisper “my father built this when he was stealing in that office”?
At 64, let us be the generation of leaders who, like Socrates, refuse to yield to wrong things, even if it costs us popularity, even if it costs us elections, even if it costs us friends.
For a clean or good name is better than a posh car bought with blood money.
That honesty finds depth in Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) in his Nicomachean Ethics, who taught that maturity is measured by practical wisdom. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit. At 64 a person is well around retirement age, an elder, a keeper of values and mentor to the young. Uganda at 64 should be that wise elder who no longer gambles with unity, oil and land but consolidates legacy.
And because a nation is a family, I invoke St. Monica (c.332 – 387 AD), the African mother from Tagaste, mother of St. Augustine. Venerated in both Anglican and Catholic traditions, she wept and laboured without ceasing to raise a wayward son into a saint. She embodies the Busoga mother in the market stall who weeps silently yet refuses to give up. When a mother collapses, the nation collapses.
On Cancer: A Disease That Knows No Colour.
I am happy to learn that Rays of Hope Hospice Jinja under Madam Sylvia Nakami, the Executive Director, is organizing a cancer event dubbed The Nile Cancer Run 2026 on 24th October 2026.
Cancer affects everyone, directly and otherwise. Children and adults, women and men, rich and poor, Musoga and Muteso, Muganda and Munyankole, Acholi and Mufumbira. It does not ask for your party card or your tribe. When a mother in Namutumba is diagnosed with cervical cancer, the whole family is pushed back into poverty. When a father in Kamuli has prostate cancer, his land is sold to pay hospital bills.
This is why the medical camps government has rolled out for this 64th Independence – bringing HIV testing, malaria treatment, hypertension, diabetes and cancer screening to ordinary mothers in markets and villages – are so important. Independence must be felt in the body. You cannot talk about middle-income status when mothers are dying of preventable cancers because they never screened.
I humbly invite everyone in Busoga and beyond – schools, cultural and political leaders,politicians,the business community, market vendors, boda boda associations, churches, mosques, SACCOs, factories and the corporate bodies in Jinja City – to join hands, contribute and participate in this noble cause on 24th October. Let us run for life.
Let us run for our mothers. A healthy mother is a healthy nation, just as St. Monica taught us that a praying mother sustains the family. Like Socrates taught us, let us examine our lifestyles, go for screening, eat well, stop excessive alcohol and tobacco.
On Unity: We Are Now One Family Through Work, Trade And Marriage.
On unity, I am happy Ugandans are doing so well and it is pleasant that you find every tribe in all corners of the country working or engaged in trade and business freely and unfettered.
This is the real independence dividend that no textbook can teach.
Today, a Musoga is teaching in Moroto. A Karamojong is the Human Resource Manager of a factory in Jinja. An Acholi is selling onions in Bugiri market. A Munyankole is running a dairy in Iganga. A Muganda is doing business in Arua. No one asks you for a visa to trade in your own country. That is what peace ushered in by President Museveni means.
Also, on weekends it is no longer news to see fleets of vehicles crisscrossing the countryside from Busoga to Kisoro to Karamoja to West Nile, Bunyoro and Lango or Acholi and Ankole to Buganda for traditional marriages. This is good. This is the deepest unity.
When our son from Luuka goes to marry in Kisoro, that family in Kisoro becomes Busoga. When our daughter from Buyende is married in Gulu, Busoga becomes Acholi. When blood mixes, you cannot preach hate. You cannot burn the village of your in-laws. You cannot incite against the tribe of your grandchildren.
Trade is unity. Work is unity. Intermarriage is unity. This is practical wisdom Aristotle taught us – that virtues are built through daily habits. Our habit of working together, trading together and marrying each other is building a united Uganda more than any speech.
At 64, let us protect this unity jealously. Let us reject tribal sectarianism and those who want to take us back to boxes. Let us teach our children what our philosophy of education lecturers taught us: that unity is not a slogan, it is what we do every day.
From Uganda To Busoga – The Unfinished Work.
Since 1962 the journey has been darkness and light. 1971 to 1986 was killings, collapse and magendo. Then came recovery. Guns are silent from Karamoja to Kisoro, roads, electricity, health centres and seed schools in Magada, Ivukula, Bukanga and Kibaale have reached where they never existed, and thousands of households across Namutumba, Kamuli, Iganga, Bugiri, Mayuge, Kaliro, Luuka, Bugweri, Buyende and Jinja are now in PDM and Emyooga SACCOs. Cultural unity under His Majesty the Kyabazinga William Wilberforce Gabula Nadiope IV has anchored us.
But woven into progress is pain. Families grow sugarcane on less than an acre and lease away entire family land for five years at little return. You cannot build Vision 2040 on a quarter acre of sugarcane. Teenage pregnancy and dropout still shame us. If you educate a girl, you educate a nation.
Poor sanitation drains incomes. Polythene bags used as toilets and baby pampers dumped on streets of Jinja, Iganga, Namutumba, Kamuli, Kaliro, Luuka, Mayuge, Bugiri and Buyende invite cholera and malaria, swallowing PDM money. You cannot talk about wealth creation when your home is filthy. Gender-based violence, negative cultural beliefs that a girl is ready at 15, and diversion of PDM funds to alcohol and extravagance in burials and introductions still hold us back.
At 64 a human being wants peace for self, family and bazukulu as President Museveni fondly refers to the young generation.
My call is layered. For Uganda, protect unity, peace and security at all costs, fight corruption and choose hard work.
For Busoga, secure food first before cash crops, protect land titles and stop fragmentation because land is wealth that does not rot, keep girls in school and guide boys to be responsible, fight GBV, discard negative beliefs, restore hard work, faith and marriage, take health screening to markets and workplaces, plant trees, protect wetlands and keep towns clean.
Let us run together on 24th October for cancer. Let us work together, trade together, marry together and heal together.
As a teacher, I remember our final philosophy class: The purpose of education is not to fill a pot but to light a fire. At 64, let us light the fire of hard work, unity and morality.
Happy 64th Independence Anniversary.
For God and My Country.
Hon. Florence Tibafana Mutyabule
Senior Presidential Advisor (SPA) – Poverty Alleviation, Busoga Sub-Region.
